Of Human and Non-Human Animals

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

What some indescribable people did to this dog is so terrifying as to defy words.

People who commit atrocities like this should be locked in jail and the key should be thrown away. It's important that perpetrators of crimes, especially of this magnitude, against animals are treated with the same severity as those who commit them against humans, if we want animals to be protected from this barbarity.

His name is Tidus, and what happened to him, could happened to your dog…

Two weeks ago, Tidus was happily playing in the park with his owner, a normal evening walk/play socializing with other dogs… All of a sudden, Tidus was nowhere to be seen.

His owner looked everywhere for him. He was wearing his collar, tag with telephone number, microchip, surely if he was lost he would be found and returned to her… Minutes passed, one hour and there was no trace of Tidus. The park and every adjacent street are combed. There was no trace.

Someone says he has seen a group of youngsters walking towards a solitary part of town walking with a tail wagging dog.

Tidus was found three hours later, and nothing could prepare it’s owner for what she was about to find...

One thing is for sure… even if his condition remains critical, Tidus is absolutely full of life, I have never before met a dog like him. Tidus EATS life… literally...

Incredible video of a young female leopard who, finding a newborn baby baboon in the fur of his mother she had just killed, saves the baby, protects and licks him, forms a bond with him.

Maybe her developing maternal instincts were stronger than her predatory ones? We don't know, but what we know is that altruistic behaviour is more common in nonhuman animals than we may be inclined to think, and has been observed repeatedly.

On page 56 the book says about non-vegetarians: "They easily cheat, tell lies, they forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes."

New Healthway also highlights the health benefits of a meatless and vegetable-based diet.

Although inaccurately describing the fish-eating Japanese as vegetarian, it says about them something that is correct about vegetarian or even mostly vegetarian nutrition: "They are vegetarians and live longer than most other peoples. The generous use of green leafy vegetables, soya beans and grams has helped the people to maintain vigour, strength and endurance throughout the centuries".

Epidemiological studies within the same country and across countries do show that vegetarians live longer and are less vulnerable to major killers like cancer and cardio-vascular diseases than meat-eaters.

New Healthway has received very harsh criticism and raised concerns in India about control over school textbooks.

"This is poisonous for children," Janaki Rajan of the Faculty of Education at Jamia Millia University in Delhi, who was part of the committee that prepared a report raising concerns about textbooks printed by private publishers, told the BBC.

The book has also been attacked by some self-appointed "guardians of science" against the dark forces of superstition, in a post which is full of inaccuracies itself. The article author has relied on the BBC report and has never consulted the original Indian source of the news, otherwise he (or it coud be she) would not write that "It’s not know [sic] whether any schools have bought the book, but those that do will have some ‘splaining to do", because he would know that the book has been in use in several schools since 2008.

For someone who respects the rules of science, sloppy and superficial research is not a good starting point.

The reason why the activist atheist site in question, called Why Evolution Is True (like a book by Jerry Coyne which in fact I have), even covers the topic of this Indian textbook lies in its Christain connection: "The strongest argument that meat is not essential food is the fact that the Creator of this Universe did not include meat in the original diet for Adam and Eve. He gave them fruits, nuts and vegetables," reads a chapter entitled Do We Need Flesh Food?".

This is similar to the basis on which the vegetarianism of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Christian denomination, is founded.

The irony is that, as far as health is concerned, science is on the side of this textbook's argument, however badly presented and stimulated by whatever inspiration, Christian in this case.

A book that promotes vegetarianism for ethical and medical reasons is a good thing, even if the style, admittedly, could have been more refined.

In fact, I would say that this book is very welcome and, despite its limitations, even necessary, if you consider this:

Despite a strong culture of vegetarianism and a religious taboo over beef-eating, Indians are consuming more and more meat as the country’s economy grows and consumers become better-travelled.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization last year said Indians’ per capita consumption of meat was running at 5.0 to 5.5 kilograms (11 to 12 pounds) a year, the highest since it began compiling records.

In short, India seems to be going the same way as China. Since we're on the subject, did you know that the much-vituperated McDonald's has announced that it will open two vegetarian restaurants in India next year, the first such outlets globally for the world’s biggest restaurant chain? McDonald's is trying to grow in India where it is still a relatively small presence and so is bowing to local demand.

Once McDonald’s has its first vegetarian restaurants in place in India, why not put pressure on the hamburger chain to open them elsewhere, indeed everywhere else?

Another assertion in the textbook that has given rise to controversy is in its life lessons, where it advocates marriage for girls between 18 to 25, adding: "To get married without a bad name is a dream of every young girl."

People could do much worse than follow advice of that kind. Again this book is attacked for the style and form in which it presents its arguments, rather than being analyzed for the substance of its content.

Unless, of course, someone thinks that it's preferable to have a high rate of teenage pregnancy, illegitimate births, fatherless families, sexually transmitted diseases, in short all the consequences of not stopping to consider whether sexual promiscuity is indeed the way forward.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

It may have done it partly for the wrong reasons (combat climate change) but partly, and importantly, for the right reasons (animal welfare and also human health).

It is great that on October 24 this resolution was adopted: "the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby declares all Mondays as 'Meatless Mondays' in support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health and
protect animals."

It is very, very good that, before this declaration, several Californian and US colleges and universities had added Meatless Monday menus in their cafeterias; in Maryland the Baltimore City Public School System had become the first US school district to adopt a 100% Meatless Monday policy in 2009, followed by other school districts in the States; the Council of the District of Columbia had designated Mondays as "Meat Free Mondays"; the City of San Francisco had designated every Monday as "Veg Day"; the Green Cincinnati Plan had recommended going meatless one day a week; and a growing number of American cities had passed "resolutions encouraging residents to explore vegetarian eating to help
protect their health, the environment, and animals".

Los Angeles has now become the largest city in the US to sign a Meatless Monday resolution.

The U.S. Meatless Monday campaign was launched in 2003 in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Now the "cut out meat one day a week" program is active in 24 countries and growing.

A great number of celebrities are participating in the Meatless Mondays campaign: the picture above shows a collage of some of them.

believe it would be a nice gesture (changing Meatless Monday to Meatless Friday) that would allow our society to be on the same page - even if we are doing much of the same thing for different reasons.

It would be a good thing, bringing together people from different viewpoints, making Catholics nearer vegetarianism and vegetarians nearer Catholicism: both good perspectives on life.

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, on top of the devastation to the city and the toll on the people in the area, thousands of pets from New York City and surrounding areas are missing.

While the storm raged, many people were parted from their pets. The Humane Society of the United States reported that around 15 million dogs, 14 million cats and 1.5 million horses were in the path of Hurricane Sandy's wrath.

In many cases, owners had to part with their pets when they evacuated their homes, while others tried to find accommodation where they could take their pets with them. Often the Humane Society collected pets for safekeeping, while the owners were evacuated to safety. But many were lost during the ordeal.

Shortly before the storm hit, New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg announced that all the city shelters were pet friendly and that around 70 pets had already arrived.
However, since Sandy passed through, there are thousands of pets desperately in need of shelter, as their homes have been destroyed, or cannot safely be occupied at present.

There are also many dogs and cats who simply panicked and ran when the storm hit and various lost and found pages are being set up on the Internet, including a Facebook page, Hurricane Sandy Lost and Found Pets.

Their "about" reads, "Posting photos of lost or found pets in the areas affected by Sandy, as well as posting animal shelters in need and temporary shelters that allow animals. We are animal lovers and advocates trying to help with networking to get animals reunited with their families."

In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie announced on Friday that a rescue hotline has been set up for residents who had to leave their pets behind when evacuating. The number is 1-855-407-4787 and the hotline is open 24 hours a day. There is also a statewide pet hotline available: 1-866-407-4787.

There are many moving stories doing the rounds including one in Suffolk County. ASPCA chief Roy Gross told Long Island Press, “We had one couple who just left the shelter, they lost their house and their car, all they had left was each other and their little Pomeranian dog.”

“They kept thanking us over and over for everything,” he added.

Gross said that the agency has been staffing Pet Friendly Shelters around the clock since Sandy hit and asked for help: "Our biggest need is for supplies; dog and cat food; blankets; bowls leashes and volunteers," Gross said, adding that volunteers are also needed to help staff the Mobile Animal Hospital (MASH Unit) where dogs and cats are being sheltered. Volunteers will then be trained to staff the shelters in the event of another disaster.

With all the people, especially young, looking for a job, could not this be a golden opportunity to do some good, and at the same time get training and connections?

Monday, October 29, 2012

I have written many times on this blog and on my site Human Health and Animal Ethics that animal experiments in biomedicine do not help human health: the method is scientifically wrong and, because of its lack of predictive ability and consequent unreliability, it can do great harm to humans as well as not doing good.

So animal testing is not only useless, it is dangerous because misleading.

I have explained at length the reasons why this is the case, and you can read them there.

As far as drugs are concerned, an important part of the solution to the problem of possible unwanted side effects is better control of the effects of medicines after they have been marketed.

“We need to encourage doctors and drug companies to watch for, report and take note of side effects in order to protect patients properly. If proper drug surveillance techniques had been available in the 1960s the thalidomide problem would have been picked up much earlier. We still don't have proper post marketing trials in place.”

Testing on humans is unavoidable whether or not you have experimented on animals first, because any new drug which is marketed is an unknown, due to the unreliability of previous animal testing.

There are cases where there is a correspondence between human and non-human animals. But how do we know that? Because we transferred the results of animal testing on humans. That is, for all practical purposes, we tested them on humans.

As I said, I have already extensively written on this. Now I want to make a connection.

Three days ago, on 26 October, was the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Adha, which Muslims "celebrate" by sacrificing animals.

Eid al-Adha, in Arabic "feast of sacrifice", is celebrated in honour of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ishmael to show his obedience to God, before God stopped him and offered him a sheep to sacrifice instead of his son.

Almost all religions, from Islam to Judaism, from paganism to Hinduism, sacrifice animals to gods.

Nepal's Gadhimai Festival in Hinduism, a religion generally believed to be benign to animals,

calls for a mass animal sacrifice which is considered to be the world's goriest mass killing of animals.

A few hundred thousands buffaloes, pigs, goats, pigeons, rabbits and chickens are killed as part of the blood-soaked festival held every five years (November 24, 25) to honor the Hindu goddess of power.

...Animal sacrifice is an everyday occurrence in Nepal. One could visit one of the countless temples and suddenly find oneself witnessing the beheading of a goat, a chicken, a duck, or even a young buffalo. The visitor might catch the last sounds of a dying animal or find oneself wading through a stream of blood.

Christianity and Buddhism are the exceptions.

Jesus Christ banned the Jewish practice of animal sacrifices. Here, as in many other crucial areas, Christianity demonstrates once again its considerable enlightenment and progress in comparison to other religions. Christianity, along with Greco-Roman civilization, is what has made the West and its immensurable achievements over the rest of the world possible.

People have been sacrificing animals to their gods in the hope that the sacrifices would deliver them from evils.

Our culture is not so barbaric, but the hope that sacrificing somebody else, someone who cannot defend himself (or herself), will save us is still present.

God offering Abraham a sheep to sacrifice instead of his son Ishmael reminds me of the way animals are used in biomedical experiments to make them suffer and die instead of humans.

Animal experimentation is the heir to the ritual sacrifice, the modern-day equivalent of the hope that a "scapegoat" will take from us all the bad things and dangers and free us.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Manchester police have allowed the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha, which this year falls on 26 October, to go ahead (via Christian Defence League).

What we are not told, though, is whether the "celebrations" will involve animal sacrifices.

Eid al-Adha, which in Arabic means "feast of sacrifice", is celebrated by Muslims worldwide in honour of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael in obedience to God, before God stopped him and provided him with a sheep to sacrifice instead of his son (funny how this reminds me of the way animals are used in biomedical experiments to make them suffer and die instead of humans).

Animal sacrifices are part of the ritual "festivities". The animals traditionally killed are cows, camels, goats and sheep depending on the region. In the Indian subcontinent, the festival is called "Bakr-Id" because of the tradition of sacrificing goats ("bakri").

In the post "Bakra Eid: The cost of sacrifice", that is only concerned about the economic cost anyway, Travel Wire Asia estimates that 7.5 million animals are sacrificed every year in Pakistan alone on Eid.

Last year, a County Commissioner in Florida tried to stop local Muslims from killing animals for Eid al-Adha on a field by getting the land owner to withdraw permission.

The voice of "moderate Muslims" in America, the Hamas-related Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who had organized the ceremony, called her actions "disturbing".

This was the South Florida branch of a national organization which represents mainstream Muslims in the USA: they organized the sacrifices, they would slit the throat of sacrificial lambs.

Remember this next time you hear about "moderate Muslims". These are the moderate Muslims. Those who participate in this sort of bloodshed and complain if stopped are mainstream, ordinary, "moderate" Muslims.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

A new draft law presented to the Turkish Parliament, if passed, would condemn Turkey's stray cats and dogs to a slow and agonizing death.

The Government's plan is to abolish the current programme of TNR (Trap, Neuter and Return) and replace it with a policy instructing the municipalities to round up all free-roaming animals to place them in what are called 'Dogal hayat parklari' (natural life parks).

Now this may sound nice but these parks will just be fenced off areas, probably forests, far from populated areas where hundreds or even thousands of animals will have to fend for themselves. Those that don't die of starvation will probably suffer terrible injuries from fights over limited food sources and disease will spread through the population like wildfire.

At the moment many municipalities do not employ a vet to neuter or treat street animals, some cannot even support the animal shelters in their own areas properly so who is going to care for the animals in these out of the way parks? There will be no way to check on their welfare or even to find out if animals were actually taken there at all or disposed of in some other way!! These "parks" will become nothing but mass death camps!

Change has a petition to the Prime Minister of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan, "Stop Turkey’s proposed Death Camps for stray animals!".

Please sign the petition. They have now already collected more than 15,000 signature and need just over 9,000 to reach their target.

About Me

Philosophy graduate, journalist, website creator and
blogger born in Italy and living in London. I have been London correspondent for Italian media, including Panorama, L'Espresso, La
Repubblica. I translated Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation into Italian.